


Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa

by chaletian



Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-10 14:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaletian/pseuds/chaletian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athos lives to fight another day. Maybe that is his punishment. He must always live to fight another day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa

On reflection – and reflection is something for which Athos currently has nothing but time – his end seems fitting. He has been unjustly accused by his fellow man and found guilty by his king. There is almost some poetic justice in being so judged. He can embrace it. Perhaps in this his earlier guilt will be expiated. He sits in his cell, feels the locket between his fingers, remembering _her_ , and thinks he can almost see her amused smile, clever and quick. If he closes his eyes, Athos can pretend he feels her hand, soft and calm, smooth his hair from his forehead.

He rarely allows himself this: to indulge in the memory of his senses. Another punishment, maybe? But now his fate has been decided, and he has the luxury of remembering. They had been happy, once; he and his wife, his beautiful wife, his life and his love. The sun shone every day. The trees and the fields full of flowers, every night a symphony of starlight and warm breezes with the scent of jasmine in every breath.

His cell smells rancid. The other prisoners are raucous. It wasn’t like that, his marriage. Even when they were happy, they sometimes quarrelled, as married couples do. It often rained. Clouds obscured the stars. Athos judged his wife, his beautiful wife, his life and his love; he betrayed her and then she was dead.

And thus his end seems fitting.

 

(In the end, this is _not_ his end. Athos thinks he should be grateful ( _he is_ ) but he’s not. This would have been fitting. But he lives to fight another day. Maybe that is his punishment. He must always live to fight another day.)


End file.
